I really love my new job! I miss seeing my students from last year; however, I do still get to work with them. I get to function in more of my calling, which is helping people. Being in the role I serve has allowed me to really see various aspects of the school in a different perspective than being a general classroom. However, one aspect of my duties is to serve as the grade level chair of a particular grade level.

This is my first time supporting teachers in a school and also leading a grade level. I remember before the school year began, I took my team out to dinner because I wanted us to just have a chance to learn one another considering one of the people were new to the profession and everyone was new to the team. I thought I had built a relationship with my team; however, another person joined the team towards the end of preplanning. Some things happened towards the end of this week, which caused me to get frustrated, P.Oed, and down right angry and the majority of that was with that person if I can be honest.

Thank God for the weekend. For some reason, I was not sleepy Friday night and stayed up past 6 AM Saturday morning. During that time I had a chance to reflect and think about myself as a leader and as a person. Like I would do with my own students when they did something wrong or had offended me in anyway, I had to take a step back. I had to examine myself and the entire situation. What could I have done differently? One thing I had to recognize was something I never did; truly establish a relationship with this person. That is an error I made and I recognize that. I have done little things so far this year to help with morale; however, not anything major to build that relationship. My conscious began to feel guilty for I did something I never wanted...not to form authentic relationship to help build a great culture. I had to call the teammate after church today and apologize for my error. In the same respect, the person also told me they were sorry for offending me and that I shouldn't have to apologize; that I am doing my job.

I am thankful for people like my friends Deanna, Kay, and Herbert. I described my situation to them and they listened. They even helped me think through ways to continue developing a relationship with this person and my team in general. I am going to end on this note. If we don't build the culture in our classrooms, instruction cannot happen at its maximum potential. If we do not build culture as a grade level or school, morale will suffer, which will cause the quality of education to fall. In the end, we have to learn to build people up!